The New York State Department of Transportat ion (NYSDOT) is developing a comprehensive set of measures
that l i nk investments i n t ransport a tion to the general economic performance of the New York State Economy.
The agency wo u l d l i k e to understand in particular how NYSDOT investments singul a rly or in concert wi th
investments by State and Local governments and Public Agencies/Author i t ies could improve economic
competi t i veness.
As in the rest o f the U.S., transpor t systems have been designed to l i nk, impact and even stimulate economi c
acti v i t i es. New York State, one o f the older industrial i z ed States must continue to evaluate the scope and
impact o f thei r infrastructure investments and est imate the quanti tative impac t s o f those investments . I s there a
clear one to one rel a t ionship between dollars spent on transportat i on investments (e.g., new lanes of highways ,
airport access roads, rail improvements) and economic returns t o the State?
While i t is widely posited that investments in transport a tion i n f rastructure contribut e to economic growth and
performance, the measurement and the magnitude of the impac t of a given component o f the transportation
system on regional economic performance is di f ficul t t o establish. Wide scale projects that impact many users
by providing increased mob i l i t y, access to port and t rade fac i l i t ies or perhaps provide an increase in tour i s t
t r a f f ic are di f ficul t to value through a single performance measure. The true economi c value of a transportation
system may not be best captured by measurement of indi v idual par t s , but in f act may be best measured by the
overall network qual i t y .
To establ ish the national and international best pract ices in terms of establishing the economic value of
transpor t a tion networ k , t he authors conducted two basic forms of research. Our first method was to review the
existing l i t e rature concerning the r e l a tionship of t ransportat ion on economic development. Our second method
was t o conduct a survey of the State Departments of Transportation across the United States t o request
information on thei r use of economic performance metrics and reporting standards regarding the economi c
benefi ts of t ransport a tion investments.